Ninja Gaiden 3 is a game that was on the list of must play games for 2012, that is, until it was actually released. I followed the release and pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of the game for PS3 and was excited to get my hands on it. Ninja Gaiden 2 and Ninja Gaiden Black were both games I played over and over and rank high on my all time favorites list. This third installment, however, is not a top notch entry in gaming and may go down as the title with the biggest disappointment this year. Making the game too newcomer friendly hinders the experience greatly, among several of the problems the game faces. When put up against greater releases like Mass Effect 3 killing this game is easy to do with what the overall product came to be.

PRESENTATION:

Good. Ninja Gaiden 3's presentation is decent. In game engine runs some cut scenes, there are quicktime events spread throughout the game with enough pause to make it quite impossible to miss. Loading screen changes to world map showing where Ryu will be traveling next, Some action sequences are good, but overused. Most of the things that actually work well with the game are repeated too many times in every aspect. Good graphic engine as well, but in 2012 I don't think anybody expects to see a bad looking game by now.

GRAPHICS:

Speaking of, good. Although mostly comprised of dark themes and colors the graphics are good in this game. Frame rate is good as well and even with many enemies around things remain fluid. The main character is better detailed that in previous entries, and the enemies faced are also. Effects jump out well, mainly the blood splatter, and explosions look cool as well. The graphics are probably one of the better parts of the game, the implementation of them is where the questions arise.

SOUND:

Mediocre. Sound is rather iffy in this game. The soundtrack itself feels added on instead of implemented to complement the game or to emphasize certain situations. The voice acting is rather meh as well with Ryu's voice jumping out more American Ninja than anything else. His coarse voice is more similar to an Army soldier giving orders than a stealth based assassin ( not the same actor as in the previous 2 games ). Sound effects are decent but the ones that work well are repeated in use. Enemies you face throughout the game have a knack of saying the same thing over and over like ( I got a degree in killing! ) or something like that and this definitely hinders the experience a lot...

GAMEPLAY:

...but not more than this does. The controls in this game are bad. For an action game they are terrible. You will have several BS I hit the block button! moments and there are delays when attacking as well which can drive you nuts when fighting against a small room full of soldiers or even a single boss. I don't know how probably the main staple of the series, aside from its difficulty, was lost in this game. Controls used to be fast, responsive, and downright enviable. I went back and played a couple minutes of Ninja Gaiden 2 just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating of how bad the controls are for Ninja Gaiden 3. I died so many times because this Ryu did not respond, than anything else. Killing the soldiers here was made more tedious because of this problem. Another gripe to enjoy is the exclusion of items or any type of upgrade system whatsoever. Yes you fight with only one weapon the whole game and one magic skill. There are no health regenerating items to find or buy making the possibility of exploration completely useless. So you are left with a straight forward campaign trying to kill as many bad guys that appear and then we will give you your health back gameplay while they scream I'm going to kill you! ten thousand times while your controls are 0.5 seconds tardy in responding.*

*In a strange twist, however, the controls in Multiplayer mode are good. Mainly when playing in the Ninja Trials mode you will feel like you are actually playing Ninja Gaiden again.

LEVEL DESIGN:

Bad. The level design suffers greatly not because the levels themselves look bad, or some aren't cool to go through, ONCE, but more in the sense of how badly they are put together. Being a straightforward campaign, the game launches Ryu all over the globe and every new area is its own world where he just happened to drop, sometimes literally, into. I guess the level design is affected mainly by how the vanilla story is made up, and this disconnect from area to area you never feel like the main character is traveling within the same world or era just popping in and out of worlds like Super Mario Bros. The transition from one area to the next is non existent while the areas themselves seem like a reach to appease Western culture more than anything else. ( I don't know many ninjas that go fight in the desert, for example ).

STORY:

Laughable. Bad. Even though this series has never been really known for its Hollywood story telling, I'm sure they could have come up with something better than this. The game starts out as a rogue group of attackers take control of an Embassy in London so they can take revenge on Ryu Hayabusa. If revenge is what they desired, why did they not go to the Hayabusa village and surprise him there? Other questionable plot points are the need to incorporate rescuing a girl ( more Western influence as in sorry Mario, but the princess is in another castle ) the repeated return of the main villain, main character going soft or showing that he cares for something other than the main reason he is put there, etc. Plot holes everywhere. The Archfiend storyline in Ninja Gaiden 2 was a cool one to fight through at least and the better storyline in Ninja Gaiden Black with Murai betraying the Dragon Clan was one that was entertaining as well. The NES games had better plot and cinematic feel than this game and that is said because those games were made over 20 years ago.

BEASTIARY:

Poor. The enemies you encounter in Ninja Gaiden 3 do not offer much in terms of variety, much less in being memorable. You have the main soldiers that attack you with guns, two other with blades, some have rocket launchers on their backs, basically the norm. Farther into the game you get hounds, soldiers on jetpacks, a couple strange creations that morph into bad clones. Nothing fantastic or hinting a desire to face again. The only cool boss in the game, the main villain, has too many acts in the game thus relieving his status as becoming memorable. All other bosses are questionable, like a remote control dinosaur, a spider tank, a heli-plane, etc. There are no I want to kill that again moments for sure...*

* In the Ninja Trials multiplayer, however, this changes greatly. Why? Most of the bad guys from Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 were added to the mix, and with the better control scheme making it the saving grace of this entry hands down.

DIFFICULTY:

Inconsistent. Coming in I thought the game was supposed to be easy. Read about it somewhere, because they want it to be more welcoming to new audiences. Yeah right. Easy as in I can kill everyone while paying attention to something else, I don't think so. The newcomer friendly patent is slapped on mostly because of the quicktime events and the irritating and never ending tutorial, not because foes will die easily. They would have had the controls not been so Forrest Gump in story mode, but yet you still had to be aware of the block/counter technique to get out of some piling on situations enemies tend to practice and the only way you can have a chance at killing some bosses. I say inconsistent also in the sense that some particular situations the average gamer would have major troubles getting out of if more action oriented gamers like myself did. Yeah they put tutorials everywhere but they don't say jack about getting out of a small room with a bad camera with three hordes of enemies coming out you and you two hits away from dying.

MULTIPLAYER:

Very good. Strange as it feels like you are not playing the same game when you do the whole Online Pass Code thing. The versus and Clan modes are fun to play even with the limited arenas. In contrast to shooters of any kind a one against 3 is not impossible to overcome in this game, one that I even won a trophy for kicking their ass for. Skill is still important here and there is an upgrade system as well. You gain more moves and magic as you gain experience. The multiplayer also has the before mentioned Ninja Trials where you can either co-op or go solo in a set of different levels, variety of enemies AND bosses, from this game AND the previous two. By far the best part of the game. You can customize your nameless ninja with gear and color schemes, and more options open the more levels you pass through in the trials. You can gain experience and moves by yourself in solo mode and your character can then be used in Clan matches. Meaning you can level up first before heading to a specific Clan match or Trial where more experience is needed or required depending on how the match is set up. Overall I highly recommend the Ninja Trials over the main game by a lot.

LASTING APPEAL:

Players of the previous two games will most likely not favor this game at all. The story mode may be good for one play through, but the bad controls will anger anyone this side of Devil May Cry 3. While the Multiplayer is fun and engaging with many options to go for, it may not be enough to warrant a full retail purchase.

I rate it a 6.5 / 10.0

LAST THOUGHTS:

While a DLC here will add more weapons and levels to play in, charging for them makes it a thumbs down situation. The main game suffers greatly and it would have been helpful if the DLCs released would cover some of it up but by charging $$ for it seems like a slap in the face to me. The game is not worth the $60 nor the $100 for the Collector's Edition. Wait for it to go down to the $20 range if you are a fan or just curious about it and you'll be alright.

So I beat the Story Mode...even though I enjoyed the game somewhat the game is prone to criticism, most of it deserved. The things it does well it repeats on too many occasions, the controls are not tight, the story is corny, and the game lends you a hand too many times to find your way... taking the umphf out of fighting sometimes. The multiplayer is fun though, although levels are limited in clan battles. The Ninja Trials is for sure the best part & saving grace of this game, but I cannot recommend a full retail purchase of the game even if I did. Wait for it to get around the $20 area, then get the Online Pass Code for $10. Most people wary to play it will feel a lot better then, getting it at half price. I'll post a full review soon.

After a week of gameplay and a little over halfway through the game I can say that the game is good. Not very good, not great, just good. As stated before the difficulty level is rather confusing, the AI is non-threatening in the beginning but it gets more aggressive as you get farther along. Reading that the game was easy kind of skewed my vision for it thinking that the game would be a cakewalk, and it is not. There are some instances where it helps you by stating the obvious and the prompts for QTEs lasts too long for anyone to miss the queue. Thinking you will never die or making the game out to be a senseless button masher is far from the truth, as Dynasty Warriors it is not. The graphics are solid, some elements work good with the game not used in previous entries, the camera might be an issue for some, I have not had issues with it where I died because of it or couldn't see what I was doing. It does not follow you as quickly or stealthily like in God of War 3, to be noted. The framerate issues seen early on might have been a glitch of some sort, because I have not seen it since, and I was in areas with more enemies and more movement than in the section I saw the slowdown. The multiplayer is a lot of fun. There are 3 levels taken from the game used in Clan Battles, where you team up or go solo against others, and there is an interesting and longer section called Ninja Trials where you co-op with someone or go solo to face hordes of enemies & bosses through different levels of difficulty. In ironic twist the controls in multiplayer are tighter than in Story Mode, and you can actually see how much you need to level up and what moves you can pull off after passing certain skill levels when gaining enough experience. The multiplayer mode contains levels and enemy spoilers from the Story Mode if you pass enough of them. I stopped after completing 2 of the 5 Leader trials to finish off the Story, as I beat 10 of 10 Acolyte and Mentor trials.You can save your gameplay movies here as well although not picture perfect, as I did when I went up against a Clan Battle of 3 versus 1 and killed them 5 times to the 9 they defeated me. I liked that even when in heavy odds you can end up victorious in this multiplayer whereas in FPS no way you would kill anyone with 3 guys stacked up against you. I was worried the first few days about the purchase but now a week in I like the game for sure. Replay value is good with the multiplayer added. I believe there are free DLCs on the way with weapons and maybe more levels for the multiplayer I hope. This game is definitely the 'Matrix Revolutions' of the Ninja Gaiden series, not a bad movie by itself but the less memorable of the three.

After some more time playing today I will say that the game is flawed...I have the PS3 version of the game, and there are substantial graphical slowdowns. When facing 4 or 5 grunts ( which seems to be the SOP of the game ) things start to get into slow motion when other things are going on. The response time for the controls are not quick enough either, and there is a notable difference between the Normal and Hard modes. Enemies facing you seem to wait for you to attack them on Normal but on Hard mode they are vicious and aggressive. I faced one of the Bosses and he had several more moves on Hard mode than on Normal. The voice acting is rather suspect, Ryu's voice sounds too harsh and old and the sound quality of the other voices are vague. I have issues with the health gauge only replenishing after killing everyone in the section. There are no items to collect or maneuver around, and Bosses have no health bar to see what damage you are inflicting on them or a hit counter to see your combos at work. As cool as the closeups and slashes seem they turn unrealistic quickly after you slice a 4 foot Dragon Sword thru the guy and his waist is still attached to his torso...I don't know, seems like they extracted the best points of the previous two games in the first 40mins I've played of the game. Probably end up giving it a 7.0, as in passable, and oh yeah the story is not Oscar worthy either...

Just started to play Ninja Gaiden 3 for the PS3. The game looks really good, placed it on the 'Hard' difficulty setting as first word was that the game was easy. So far, about 20mins in I can say that the controls are not as tight as in the previous 2 games and the camera might be a problem. There are no items to collect apparently and your health gauge replenishes after defeating a wave of enemies. Your Ki charges up to release the Fire ninpo and obliterates all enemies on screen and you still have the Ultimate technique to use as well when the Dragon Sword is red stained enough. Will see what the rest offers but I doubt even with these issues the game will be a fail as posted on the IGN review.